River's Song By Melody Carlson

I received this book free from Glass Road Public Relations for my honest review of this book.

Book Description
Her relationship with her daughter in shambles and tensions mounting with her mother-in-law, Anna Larson returns to her childhood home on the banks of the Siuslaw River to sort out her parent's belongings and put the pieces of her own life back together.
Embracing her native heritage for the first time since childhood Anna transforms her old family home into Shining Waters Inn, a place she hopes will give her family a new beginning.
River's Song is Book One in the Inn at Shining Waters series.


Anna Larson lives with her mother in law and high school age daughter in her mother in law's home. There Anna works cleaning, cooking, and keeping everything together to "pay" for her and her daughter's keep. Anna's mother in law had never been a fan of hers and when Anna's husband died, after coming back wounded from the war, there was no one to "protect" her. Anna gets word her Mother has died back at her childhood home on the banks of the Siuslaw River, Anna heads there to go through her parents things and to decide what to do with the houses and the land. Anna gets there and begins to embrace her Indian heritage that she lost track of many years ago. Anna also goes there to find healing. Then she meets Hazel, an older woman who is doing research for her college paper on the tribe of Anna's family. Anna reluctantly lets Hazel see her Grandma's cottage and her parents home. Hazel offers Anna money to stay in the cottage and do her research. From there ideas and healing blossom for Anna.

My Thoughts:
This is the first book by Melody Carlson I have read and I am so glad I did. This book was a wonderful story about being able to go home again and being able to find God again. Melody Carlson must have done a lot of research on the Indian tribes of the Siuslaw River in Oregon because it was very accurate. Also our characters were deep and very real. Going through real live and real issues. The descriptions of the river and places around it are vivid and I felt like I was right there. Another focus of this story is the Mother/Daughter relationship and how complicated it can be. I am very excited to read the next book in this new series. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Christian Fiction.

About the Author

Melody Carlson published her first book in 1995 and she has been writing prolifically ever since. To date, Melody has published over 200 books, making her one of the top 20 most prolific authors of all time. With total sales of over 1.4 million her award-winning books include: Homeward, Love Finds You in Sisters, Oregon; Limelight; the Diary of a Teenage Girl series; the True Colors series; and the Charter House Girls series.
In her professional life, Melody has worn many hats: from pre-school teacher to political activist to senior editor. Currently, she writes full-time, and freelances from her home. She has two grown sons and lives in Sisters, Oregon with her husband, Chris, and Bailey, her chocolate lab. They enjoy skiing, hiking, and biking in the beautiful Cascade Mountains.